But at this week’s debate, they were curiously hands off even though the Florida senator does offer up a few juicy targets. “At this point, the most realistic way to make progress on immigration would be through a series of individual bills”, said Rubio spokesperson Alex Conant that October. “He opposed every single one of them”, Cruz said, without mentioning Rubio’s name.
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And there’s still the problem of the Gang of Eight bill.
Just days before the debate, the Wall Street Journal published a devastating editorial that said Rubio’s support for sugar subsidies belied his attempt to position himself as “a young, fresh-faced champion of limited-government conservatism”.
Trump’s bullying is getting as old as his bellicosity is wearing thin, and this debate, the fourth meeting of Republican candidates, made that abundantly clear.
The issue of illegal immigration is not only a political issue, but borders (pardon use of word) on a social issue.
“When the Senate bill was proposed, he proposed legalizing people that were here illegally. He proposed giving them work permits”, Rubio said. “A green card with no right to naturalization”. You know, I never had those thoughts, in all fairness.
Cruz now no longer supports an increase in the number of visas until the program is reformed, spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Wednesday. The would-be dynast was wounded beyond recovery in an earlier debate when an attack on fellow Floridian Marco Rubio backfired.
At the time, Cruz introduced amendments to nix a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.
Cruz isn’t alone in questioning Rubio’s seemingly shifting position on immigration. That video was posted by a brand new YouTube account called “Hypo-Cruz”. Choosing Saturday night for a debate suggests the organizers – perhaps even one of the candidates – are not interested in reaching the widest possible audience.
Even the inability of old-school Republicans to fit into a tea party-dominated Republican Party: Again, in 2012, Bush said Ronald Reagan and his dad, H.W., would have a hard time with “an orthodoxy that doesn’t allow for disagreement”.
Republican US presidential candidate Governor John Kasich of OH speaks at the debate held by Fox Business Network for the top 2016 U.S. Republican presidential candidates debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 10, 2015.
The debate moderators missed the opportunity to ask Rubio about the argument, but Cruz circled back during his next question. “He also wants to eliminate the per-country limit that he said left applicants from countries like Mexico, China and India hamstrung when they tried to gain legal entry to this country”.
But the Texas Republican took his hardline message on immigration to New Hampshire, where he encouraged voters to look at which candidates are “blowing smoke” on a path to citizenship and which are “telling the truth”.
“I’m in”, Christie told The Associated Press before he headed into a packed town hall meeting in Bettendorf, Iowa. Good for him. almost all the myths about the subsidies – for example that they save American jobs and don’t actually cost Americans any money – have been exploded.
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“It is not complicated that on the seminal fight over amnesty in Congress, the Gang of Eight bill – that was the brainchild of Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama, would have granted amnesty to 12 million people here illegally – that I stood with the American people and led the fight to defeat it in the United States Congress”, he said. Rest assured, though, that plugged-in conservative Republicans – the kind most likely to vote in primaries – knew exactly who Cruz was bashing.
